JULY 149 



LVIII 



Forcibly as every observant mind must be impressed 

 by the ingenious mechanism provided by Nature for 

 the wants of animal and vegetable life, one why cattle 

 is sometimes inclined to suggest remedies to ^gjjj^ 6 

 apparent imperfections. These lines are Herds 

 written in a riverside tavern in Hampshire, where I am 

 sheltering from the torrid heat till approaching dusk 

 shall set the trout astir once more. In a little meadow 

 before the door, toasted to tinder by weeks of fierce 

 sunshine, grazes a good Alderney cow, type of patient 

 usefulness. Depending as I do on her to supply me 

 with cream and butter for breakfast, I cannot be in- 

 different to things concerning her comfort ; and, seeing 

 that July is the worst month in all the calendar for 

 flies, I am glad to note that she has a fine switch of 

 black hair at the end of her tail, and that with this 

 efficient fly-flap she keeps her loins and ribs free from 

 annoyance. But obviously it is not long enough; it 

 does not reach her forequarters ; her withers, shoulders, 

 and dewlap are densely covered with black swarms of 

 flies, which must be intensely irritating. Now, if I had 

 been designing a cow, methinks I should either have 

 made the tail a couple of feet longer, or, better, brought 

 out a subsidiary one half-way up the spinal column, to 

 serve the poor beast's fore-quarters. 



' Gently there ! Mr. Humanitarian,' I seemed to hear 

 somebody whisper, ' put the saddle on the right horse 

 if you please. It is only too true that yonder gentle 

 creature is suffering horribly, but whose fault is that ? ' 



